The Day of the Fourtyfour Sunsets
by redmoonantics
Summary: My first X fic in honor of Subaru and Hokuto Sumeragi's birthday! Just a general story about the Promised Day with a little more emphasis on Fuuma instead of Kamui. Beware SS fans, this is SK and mildly FK (but I don't support FK, ok?)


The Day of the Forty-Four Sunsets  
By Yume-chan  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own X in any way or any of the characters (though wouldn't that be fun? Subaru and Kamui: NO!!!!). Blah Blah Blah and all that jazz copyright CLAMP.  
- - - This is my first X fanfiction ever, posted on February 19th, 2004 in honor of Subaru and Hokuto Sumeragi's birthday! I don't know if I'll ever write another X fic ever again, because this one was tough! Or maybe I'm just...gah I dunno! Read and review please! I want feedback! And for crying out loud, if you're gonna flame me just because of S/K implications, then get a life! -Yume ga Suki  
~  
  
"...Were you very sad, on the day of the forty-four sunsets?"  
- from The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint Exupéry  
  
The sun sets again over the spire of Tokyo Tower. For a fleeting minute or so, it is a flaming match, the shadow of what was before quietly sinking into the horizon. Sinking on another day, every sad sunset retelling a story of what is to come, every day another grain in earth's hourglass  
  


* * *

  
The last rays of the evening sun wove themselves within the depths of two golden eyes as they watched from the peak of yet another of Tokyo's skyscrapers. Fuuma Monou could often be found here, but somehow, he went unnoticed, despite the anomaly that he was...at least, to all but thirteen others in the world.  
  
"Ah, the sunset," A silky voice spoke from behind him. "It truly is beautiful, but even so, it never fails to sadden...another day gone by..."  
"Another day wasted by this race as we speak. As will this sunset one day be consumed by toxic filth...," Fuuma replied simply, now turning to face his converser, who continued to muse aloud. "Do you ever think about that day to come? When it will be over...and..."  
"Sometimes, but it's like seeing a movie that you've already seen. Besides..." Fuuma rose from his perch, his gaze shifting from the man before him back to the sun, which was now a pinprick of reddish light in the soft chicory sky- like a droplet of blood.  
  
"His blood," thought Fuuma aloud, a smile spreading across his face, "It will be his blood." Yuuto Kigai smiled amiably at the Chi no Ryu's "Kamui". "Do you think he feels the same way?"  
Fuuma paused for a moment, "No, he's got other things on his mind. I do, after all, know his true wish."  
And then the city was bathed in darkness, and with it went Fuuma.  
  


* * *

  
(Ueno-koen, Tokyo)  
  
A light evening breeze waltzed with tendrils of Kamui Shirou's silken black hair as he walked. Another evening at Ueno, he was as the birds that frequent it, despite the many feelings that it never failed to evoke.  
He walked rather slowly, his eyes fixed on the ground below, but he wasn't really looking at it, as his mind swam with the usual (or not so usual) equally prominent thoughts of the past, and of the future. However, this proved to be a problem when he wandered a little off-course and right smack into a small tree.  
"Damn...," he mumbled to himself as he quickly sat up and rubbed his forehead, wincing slightly, and even more so as the sun shone sourly in his eyes as it filtered through the leaves. Despite his pain, Kamui couldn't help but find the brilliance of the green leaves to be reminiscent of...  
"Subaru-!" Kamui breathed, and blinked twice only to confirm the half- joy, half- sorrow based thrill that had almost made him fall over again.  
"Are you alright?" Subaru asked, kneeling down to meet Kamui's eyes, but there was hardly any concern in his tone.  
"Uh, y-yes!" A million questions immediately raced into Kamui's mind. What he wanted to do was scream at Subaru. He had been so worried about him, lying awake late into insane hours of the morning. Sometimes, he even saw it in his sleep... the roar of the collapsing bridge, and then ghostly silence, until all that could be heard was Subaru's shattered heart, beating ever so softly in the form of "whys?"...for so long it had eaten away at him, and now...In his mind, Kamui had come up with dozens of things to say if he ever saw Subaru again, but the gaping silence seemed to have swallowed every last one.  
Subaru began to rise, but a hand on his shoulder forced him down again. At meeting that leaden gaze, Kamui could not bring himself to form a single word, for he could no longer deny the fact that Subaru had accepted his position. His eyes stung, watering with the pricks of reality, and he quickly rose and turned to run. However, he did not get very far, for only a few seconds later did a firm arm catch him around the waist with a little gasp.  
"S-Subaru..." Kamui's breath came out in short, suppressed sobs as he readily gave in to the lukewarm embrace. They stayed that way through a long, pregnant pause, during which Kamui calmed down a little. There was an unspoken understanding between them, there always had been, it seemed. Yet, silence had reigned too long for Subaru.  
"Kamui," he began, and gently laid his head against the boy's shoulder, "It's so different now..."  
Kamui was a little taken aback by Subaru's sudden behavior. Wasn't the Sakurazukamori supposed to be void of emotions? Wasn't he not supposed to care about anything except the Tree?  
But frankly, Kamui wasn't exactly complaining, either.  
"...Don't ever let me...," But the rest of the words were lost in the fabric of Kamui's shirt, and he turned to face Subaru, tears running down his cheeks once again.  
"Please, don't leave...not now...there's no more time left...everything will be gone soon and-..."  
There was no more to be said, and the two remained quiet in each other's arms as another day ended, the sunset sky reflecting the current emotions of the two now left standing alone in the park.  
  
+ + +  
(Tokyo Tower, a few days or so before the Promised Day)  
  
Fuuma "Kamui" Monou sat perched high above the city of Tokyo, which was beginning to light up in the wake of the usual busy nightlife. As he watched cars, the size of beetles, speed along the streets below, his thoughts wandered casually to the matter at hand, and the matter that almost everyone in the city was surprisingly unaware of, despite its magnitude.  
  
It won't be long now...soon it will be over...everything...humans and all they stood for...but the earth will live on, as it deserves to. Everything will be just as Kakyo said...the Ten no Ryu's Kamui can never truly awaken to his position, his only wish is unable to be fulfilled in its entirety...in a few days, it will all be...over.  
  
Something about this stirred something inside Fuuma. It had been a long time since he had truly felt anything...anything great enough, anyways. But here it was- could he possibly feel sad about the earth's destiny? Did he still have it in him to care?  
A small star appeared in the dusky sky- the first star of the evening. Just a little sparkle in the harsh night rough, a bit of crystal in an ashen ore.  
  
"Kamui...," He sensed the boy's presence. "I-I just came to watch the sunset," Kamui stuttered quickly, not wanting to stoke a fire before he had to.  
To Kamui's surprise, Fuuma simply turned his golden gaze back to the sky, and said calmly, almost as though he were himself again, "They're good to watch when you're sad or upset."  
This was a complete shock to Kamui. He would never have expected Fuuma to say anything like that ever again, especially not now, when the final battle was a mere few days away.  
"Is that why you're here, Fuuma?" He felt brave enough to use the Chi no Ryu's true name.  
"It's why you're here," Fuuma replied simply.  
"It's just that, in a few days, who knows-well we'll see what happens, but this world will never be the same, either way."  
"It wasn't meant to be any other way than its purest form, and humans have only stripped it of its natural beauty...I don't need to fight for a consequence they've written themselves."  
"But...there is still beauty in this world. Humans were meant to appreciate things like the sunset."  
"You know, Kamui, a reason why the sky is so red during a sunset is because of all the man-made toxins in the atmosphere,"  
Kamui sighed, "Yes, I know, but that's why it's beautiful, isn't it? Like how a song can still be beautiful, even though sadness was why somebody wrote it..."  
Fuuma said nothing, and turned to face Kamui, but he had gone, taking the last fiery ray of light with him.  
  


* * *

  
(The Promised Day, 1999)  
  
The ring of clashing steel had pierced the air around like a blade through skin  
  


* * *

  
It happened so quickly, thought Kamui, as he relaxed into his destiny, the pain slowly leaving his system, as was the blood. As it drained from his system, his skin turned paler still, until he became almost pure white, ethereal.  
As Fuuma watched the last breaths escape Kamui, the whole scene played over and over in his mind's eye  
  


* * *

  
"Fuuma ...I wanted to protect you...along with this world...and now..."  
"You will die and be forgotten. And then the world will begin to change..."  
"I will not be forgotten...because...I..."  
"You don't mean anything to anyone...you have no purpose, the future has already been decided!"  
  
And then he, "Kamui", carried out Kakyo's vision, and thrust the fateful weapon through Kamui's heart, and then...well, here they were. There was nothing left to be done, but to Fuuma, it seemed like there should have been something more.  
He held the defeated Ten no Ryu, listening to the boy's struggled breathing, and closed his eyes, waiting for everything to end, for the flames of his destiny to engulf him...  
"Kamui, I-I didn't..." he began, but he then realized that it had already been minutes since Kamui had left him.  
  
~Owari~ 


End file.
